The '94 Grand Prix de Lyon, October 17-23, will present the
ATP Tour FanFest to European tennis fans for the first time.
After six stops in the U.S. and with Australian opening this week
in Sydney, it is now Europe's turn to host the miniature tennis
theme park. ATP Tour partners Luftansa, Penn and Sega will be
supporting the Lyon FanFest along with tournament sponsor,
Maillot Savarez (THE DAILY).

PepsiCo announced plans to invest $5M in a partnership to
form a South African bottling venture, New Age Beverages. The
partnership will include $15M in investment from a dozen
"prominent" African-Americans, including Shaquille O'Neal and
actor Danny Glover. South African Egoli Beverages L.P. will hold
a 75% stake in New Age, and Pepsi says black South Africans will
hold the majority stake by the year 2000. Coca-Cola presently
holds 75% of the $1B South African soft drink market. Coca-Cola
emphasizes that its own joint bottling venture is not only
managed by black South Africans, but 50% owned by black South
Africans (Cynthia Mitchell, ATLANTA CONSTITUTION, 10/4).

The National Sporting Goods Association reports that
sporting good sales in eight mountain states (MT, ID, WY, CO, NM,
AZ, UT & NV) rose 45% over a 5-year period from '87-'92. Total
sales increased from $902M to $1.31B. The number of sporting
goods stores rose 19% over the same period, with the rate higher
for specialty shops than full-line stores. Denver, Salt Lake,
Phoenix, Albuq. accounted for about 35% of sales in the 8 states
(THE DAILY).

Yesterday's Twin Cities Marathon was "forced by lack of
major sponsors to halve its prize purse from a year ago to
$100,000" -- lowest in its 13-year history. While the event
plans to "shore up a lingering $55,000 debt, it has watched as
major sponsors jumped ship -- the latest being Health Partners,
which pulled its $170,000 annual payment last winter." The only
major cash sponsor was the University of Minnesota Health System,
which gave $40,000 (Nolan Zavoral, Minneapolis STAR-TRIBUNE,
10/3).

AD AGE'S Charles Siler examines the "new and improved game
plan" of the World League of American Football. WLAF CEO Marc
Lory, who is determined not to repeat the league's past failures,
is overseeing a plan where the "league will be limited to
European teams and rely more on sponsorship revenue than TV
rights." The WLAF will be aimed directly at the MTV generation
of 17-27 year-olds, as games will be shortened and some will
include live U.S. rock music at halftime. In the U.S., certain
games will likely air on Fox's fX cable channel in the first
year. The league is "prepared not to make money for three
years," but after ticket sales, the largest source of revenue is
expected to be large "primary" sponsors. Reebok International
has already signed up, and Lory says deals with McDonald's and
Coca-Cola are "in the works." Reebok is planning to introduce a
line of World League/Reebok logo sportswear next spring (AD AGE,
10/3 issue).